42 comments:

Here's a thought...imagine the person in the photograph, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, sitting on a park bench. Or: take a card and cover the bottom half of this person's face and as much of the orange as possible. Is there something here that is compelling for some reason? Or does she seem to be someone you'd probably avoid sitting down next to. Or, how about this: imagine being out for a walk and seeing someone approaching you dressed as: a zen monk, a tibetan monk, a swami, a guru, a priest (Christian, Hindu, whatever); what would your reaction be? . Then imagine the same person dressed in ordinary clothing.Would you have a different reaction? Have you ever had the "shock" of seeing a former orange-clad swami dressed in "civilian clothes"? The world is full of signifiers and we are programmed from infancy to respond to them. Put on the costume and set off the automatic response. Test it yourself; you might be surprised (or not). The Mind can create pretty much any kind of story and believe it.

Anon Feb 14 4:26 pmMaybe thats why it has been said.... dont believe anything you hear and only half of what you seeor something like that. Wonder how the mind would react if it saw Christ himsef walking down the street in human form in regular street clothes!?

I thought you added that caption, SeekHer. Here I was thinking, "SeekHer is funny!what a good joke...Sweet Surprise:I hate your guts". Egad. Ok, so now: cover up ALL of the guru costume...and just leave her face. Then cover up her dimple and take a real good look... talk about hostility!" zowie..."I wolcome you all with all my hort"...um, I don't think so.

You know how you can project your own issues and questions onto other people and ask them what you really want to ask yourself? look at the face; it's written all over it. But who knows about "gurumayi" anyway? maybe the Malti person is trapped in the role, after making a promise to muktananda that she (as an individual personal egoic identity) is still trying to fulfill (ambivalently). I've known alot of Hindu elder sons (priests) who made deathbed promises to their fathers to carry out some visionary "mission" the father never got a chance to do himself. These guys pretty much die trying; it's cultural. To let go of the "mission" means renouncing the person who gave it to you and everything that relationship stands for. It also means losing face in a culture that puts alot of value on "face". If malti had stayed in India playing the guru role, maybe she would not look so conflicted.Maybe she would look like other female Hindu guru figures: a bit bored and kind of venal but not a bit conflicted by the role they are playing. However, like so many Eastern teachers, she got a taste of the Western concept of "individual freedom" and, since she was educated by Westerners, she got more than the usual taste. It's hard to reconcile Eastern and Western perspectives, as many of us know only too well. Maybe some of the connection folks felt had to do with sensing this division in gurumayi? it created a kind of "symnpathetic vibration"...alot of wounded people sensing a wound in someone else and resonating with it..unconsciously. Personally, I would be very surprised if the Westernized half of Malti wins out over the Hindu side. Either way, though, it's pretty clear this is not a "fully realized being" we're looking at. Stick her photo next to one of Ramana or Anandi Moyi Ma or even the pissed off photos of Nisargadatta or the kind of scarey Bh. Nityananda pics. The difference is fairly obvious. I feel really sorry for her on a human level...not sorry for the role or the damage it wreaked but sorry for the human being trapped in all of that. Alot of lifetimes to work all that out...if you believe in that sort of thing.

Disturbing but totally believable alternate take on "Are you still here?"

But wow, imagine being the devotee who has to accept memories of being in a place in place of being in that place, and all for no reason.

It would be like your parents sending you a Christmas card with a photo of themselves taken in the house you grew up in --after they told you you weren't allowed to ever come back to visit and no reason was ever given why. And you were supposed to believe that was the same as being home for Christmas.

I recognized that slide from the SY, Inc. fan page. Still trying to figure out where I go to "like" it. (wahh, wahh.) Still when I saw it again here second-guessed at first it was legit. The level of absolute disconnect / alternate reality / bad taste is astonishing at a point where it's become increasingly harder to be astonished by anything spewed out by the powers that were. Seeing it again at RoD I had to laugh as I took "Are you still here?" as pure sarcasm on Gs part-as if she's saying to anyone still looking at her, still paying attention for whatever reason to her or SY, "Are you STILL here?!" Like hey chumps, im just sitting here on this park bench minding my own business-What's YOUR problem?!? G said in a recent message something to the effect that smileys and emoticons were now "part and parcel" of the SY teachings... So perhaps in order to remain up to date / "in alignment" this slide makes more sense if you replace "Are you still here?" with "LMFAO." Just sayin.

In the second photo hand on chin could mean Im listening to you and Im not too impressed or pleased with what Im hearing. Like a mother might look at a kid trying to explain something they have done or said that mom is not too happy with.

That was a most astute observation about the eastern and western aspects of Malti.

I have often fantasized of Malti coming out (in true western style)with a memoir about life as a worshipped human being (guru) - all the luxuries, pressures, temptations and transgressions of her and others, and the experience of being treated like a deity when now she realises she wasn't. (the true realisation!) And going on Oprah and other shows to promote this book, dressed in ordinary garb, acting like the ordinary person she is. I'd love to see her brother do this too. And they could give the proceeds to charity as atonement. Yeah....

If something like this happened, I would have true respect for Malti, and probably pity and compassion too. I am one of those who for decades (starting with Muk) believed in a fairy-tale not very much different from Santa Claus, that these people were living gods, and above me. Now I don't care which picture of ANY so-called realised being you show me, I'd rather light a candle and burn incense in front of a picture of my granddad in his undies (with great respect, mind you)....or even in front of a hole in the wall.

"Maybe some of the connection folks felt had to do with sensing this division in gurumayi? it created a kind of "symnpathetic vibration"...alot of wounded people sensing a wound in someone else and resonating with it..unconsciously."

Anon 4:32 "What do you mean by You cant make this stuff up. What is the stuff ? I have a dense mind though am getting quite an education here on this sight."

Let me see if I can explain, although I think I will do a bad job of it.

Baba famously said: "Change the prescription of your glasses." By that he meant, "learn to see the world in a completely new way—my way." If you accepted his invitation and allowed yourself to be taught to see through the Guru's eyes, you submitted to the process of enchantment. His vision became your vision and your mind learned to only view the world from one perspective, and to not see any other perspective even if it presented itself to you.

But enchantment is not a one-time thing. It takes a lot of work to maintain the mental discipline to accept a limited world view and reject all others. It is possible to become disenchanted. It's frighteningly simple, actually. All you have to do is to accept the alternate perspectives that your eyes and mind see and give them equal weight to what you have learned is the Guru's viewpoint. If you do this consistently for awhile your mind will no longer feel comfortable roaming solely within the narrow walls of "the teachings". These precincts, once thought to be sacred, will begin to seem rather a prison.

Once you have gone through the process of disenchantment you throw away the Guru's glasses and see through new eyes. You can never view things the same way, even if you would want to. So, we who have broken free from the beliefs we held while practicing SY cannot look at these images of the Guru, and the captions on these photos, as a devotee would. These images were created by devotees for devotees. I don't even know what meaning they are meant to hold, but I imagine they contain an invitation from the SYDA foundation to imagine that you somehow have found yourself alone with Gurumayi.

Perhaps there were a dozen of so of you with her in a field outside the Fallsburg ashram when suddenly, everyone else has vanished and Gurumayi, who has been staring into the distance, turns and says "Are you still here?" You're thrilled! Finally you have the private darshan of your dreams but you find yourself unexpectedly tongue-tied. As much as you want to pour your heart out to the Guru you don't feel worthy to take her time. You imagine that "are you STILL here" is a rebuke and you want to flee from the Guru's piercing gaze.

But then she consoles you, she climbs down from her chair and sits on the ground, humble as Michelangelo's Madonna of the Stairs. You hear her deep rich dark velvet voice say (as if in a dream) "I'm listening."

This (I imagine) is what a devotee might feel seeing these images. For the disenchanted, however, this diptych holds a very different meaning.

For the disenchanted, the photo of Gurumayi asking "Are you still here" can only be viewed ironically. We know that almost everyone has fled Siddha Yoga. The Guru surely knows this. So, her asking if we are still here is more a startled admission by her that her yoga has failed.

And the photo wherein she says "I'm listening" can only be seen as absurd. She is not listening to the person who is looking at this photo on the internet. She, meaning Malti Shetty, is most likely not even wearing orange and playing the Guru-role at the moment the devotee is looking at that image of her. You can pour your heart out to the computer screen but no one will hear you or respond. You have been trapped in a hall of mirrors and the distorted reflections you see are in no way real.

That is what I meant when I said "you can't make this up". Siddha Yoga depends upon the continued myopic vision of its increasingly shrinking base of believers to peddle what is left of its wares. When it spreads its meager offerings out, as it does here, all most of us can do is laugh. If we tried to make up a world in which the computer image of a holy person repeating self-help bromides stood in for an actual saint, we could never do a better job than SYDA is doing right now.

I recall when the directive came that instead of sending personal letters, we could leave those letters In the temple. We were encouraged not to bring our troubles or spiritual questions to Gurumayi, but to Bade Baba. It bugged me calling him that as I believe Nityananda was a true renunciate and not part of a pr machine and I could see Gurumayi had pulled this concept out of one of her gazillions of hats. It did work this substitution because I was working on my problems myself in a quiet and sacred space. Always helpful. But I did wonder about and feel a twinge of sadness for all those letters written so full of longing and faith that would never be read. But instead went straight to the burn box.

Using the Internet the same way. Distancing but still pretending to be That. The letters from devotees and ashramrites posted are painful to read. The self hypnosis is in full force and for little crumbs of knowledge. Nothing is being acquired by these folks except delusion. Thanking Gurumayi for things she has zero to do with.

The photos look like pictures of a mad woman to me. That is what I see. No inner light. Anger, arrogance, reproach. Not a happy camper. What could you attain from following her teachings and sadhana by emoticons.

>>" Now I don't care which picture of ANY so-called realised being you show me, I'd rather light a candle and burn incense in front of a picture of my granddad in his undies (with great respect, mind you)....or even in front of a hole in the wall.<<"

I'll bet that GM did not write these captions. Betcha it was the web techies. What I get from "Are you still here?" is this: Either you follow me or you don't. The photo reminds me of a pharmacutical ad. The second photo was badly captioned because the body language and facial expression do not match the caption. All those web photos look very staged.

" Maybe some of the connection folks felt had to do with sensing this division in gurumayi? it created a kind of "symnpathetic vibration"...alot of wounded people sensing a wound in someone else and resonating with it..unconsciously. "

Thank you!! OS/February 15, 2013 at 11:45 Aand:

"I feel really sorry for her on a human level...not sorry for the role or the damage it wreaked but sorry for the human being trapped in all of that. Alot of lifetimes to work all that out.."

Your comment about maybe it resonated on some level for wounded people to see her wound..... I found myself stopping and thinking a long time about that observation. I realized now that I have always sensed the sadness, the conflict, and the yearning to be free of SYDA in Malti. It's why I gave her such a wide berth of accepting things I knew weren't right.

You don't know how much that simple awareness has helped me. Thank you.

>>"You don't know how much that simple awareness has helped me. Thank you."<<

Dear Anon. 4:51, You're welcome. I only fully understood this pattern when I was looking at my relationship with my own Mother (while trying to clarify the impact of childhood emotional programming on my "personal embodiment issues"). As a child, it was the same thing for me...accepting alot of what would now be called "emotional abuse" from my very extraordinary Mom because, on some level, the aware part of me understood that: one: she couldn't help it and two: she was, somehow, trapped in her own personal battle with the same forces I was beginning to struggle with myself . I was just in the wrong place at the right time. There was alot of oddly mature compassion coming from a child who was just becoming a person. Then this pattern got set up. When I met gurumayi, it felt very familiar...like "coming home"...the same "hooking in" to the vein of someone else's suffering beneath the appearance of unlimited power. Everything about her was so familiar: the charisma, the magical quality and the chameleon-like ability to morph from the personification of Bliss and Joy to the embodiment of Kali holding a skull in her hand. She appeared to "shape-shift" seemingly without provocation and in the blink of an eye. In retrospect, I think this is really a child's-eye view of the power of The Mother. Remember when we used to say (in hushed voices) "meeting the guru was like coming home"? Well, it's a pretty true statement..it IS like "coming home" but maybe not quite in the way we originally thought. What I find interesting now is how awake and aware children can be in a way that is not "childlike" at all and, at the same time, they are children with a child's needs and fears. It can be very humbling to realize that so many of your choices were made based on the perceptions of a five-year old.